Why This Is Just The Beginning Of Egypt's Crippling Demographic Crisis

Let’s say the protesters fail and Hosni Mubarak stays in power. Next year the social pressures will be greater. That’s because today’s riots aren’t about (just) politics or Tunisia or food prices.Egypt is facing a demographic crisis.

A few facts:

Egypt’s median age is 24

Egypt’s population will grow 32% by 2040

Half a million Egyptians enter the job market every year

Egypt, outside the desert, has the highest population density in the world, with 2,000 inhabitants per square kilometer

In short, an incredibly dense population is expanding rapidly, creating hundreds of millions of unemployed and angry youths.

There’s a similar problem in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Tunisia, and all the other places where riots have erupted recently. This problem isn’t going away, and it will take more than regime change to fix.